Offshore installations of wind turbines require transportation of the wind turbine components from an onshore location to the offshore installation site. An increasing number of offshore wind projects lead to higher demands for transportation and installation equipment and methods.
It is desired to reduce the amount of work to be undertaken offshore. Therefore, arrangements and methods of transporting wind turbine components often focus on maximizing the number of components loaded on board a vessel and transported at once.
Moreover, transportation methods and arrangements are known focusing on minimizing the required transportation and installation time of offshore wind turbines by transporting pre-assembled units such as towers, nacelles or rotors.
Here, the rotors are generally transported as deck cargo in such a way that the blades project over the deck, whereby problems occur when the rotors are transported in rough waters.
Due to the long and elastic blades of modern wind turbine rotors and vessel movements, the tips of the blades may flex and get in contact with water which in turn may cause damages to the rotors.